The Impact of Communist Ideology in Hungary Prior to 1945

Abstract

Although Communism has been, and to a large extent still is, totalitarian, it is dependent on a certain measure of cooperation by intellectuals, workers and peasants to carry out its programs. Cooperation is to be ensured by the implantation of the ideology¹ as the scientifically correct reason for the programs. When the Marxist-Leninist Party is in power, it has all media for influencing public opinion at its disposal. This has been the case in Hungary since the end of the Second World War. The objective and factual study of the impact of Communist ideology on the Hungarian people during this period requires a careful study of the ideological agitation and propaganda of the Party and of responses to it by those representatives of the population who had opportunity to publicly express their opinions. When the Party is not in power, however, the responses of the population to its ideology are evident in overt political action. By way of introduction to the power-phase of Communism in Hungary, the present chapter makes an attempt to outline the impact of Communist ideology in Hungary prior to 1945, as manifested in political action and recorded in history.